India should strengthen ties with Taiwan

3 weeks ago

0 51 1 minute read

As the coronavirus menace makes lives difficult and miserable for millions of ordinary people around the world, the US and China are involved in an ugly spat, over who is responsible for the carnage that threatens the welfare, well-being and lives of millions across the world.

President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the Chinese are responsible for creating the virus, though nobody appears clear whether it was the creation of a research project in Wuhan on bats, which went horribly wrong, or the creation of the unhygienic conditions in Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. The seafood market reportedly sells a variety of meat products, including bats, foxes, frogs, pigs, porcupines, snakes and turtles.

China denies any role in triggering the Covind-19 tragedy, which could well be true. But it faces continuing criticism from angry populations across the world, including from irate Africans, whose people faced racist attacks after the crisis broke. But the worst manifestations of hypocrisy have come from sanctimonious countries in the Islamic world, including Iran and Pakistan. Both have remained silent as Muslims continue to be ruthlessly persecuted just across their borders, in China’s Xinjiang Province. The Trump Administration, in turn, cannot absolve itself of responsibility for initially underestimating the seriousness of the issues and then playing crass and polarising electoral politics, with the safety, security and lives, of its own citizens.

India has become a victim of these developments, despite its best efforts to contain the fallout of the Wuhan crisis. These developments came at a time when New Delhi and Beijing were attempting to bridge long-standing differences. China was meanwhile, busy seeking to expand its economic profile in India, in areas like telecommunications, infrastructure and energy.